Efficient and accurate worm grinding of spur face gears according to an advanced geometrical analysis and a closed-loop manufacturing process

Worm grinding has been applied to manufacture gears to pursue high accuracy and fine surface finish.When the worm used to grind face gears is manufactured with multi-axis computer numerical control(CNC)machining,the machining accuracy is usually improved by increasing the number of tool paths with more time cost.Differently,this work proposes a generated method to improve the efficiency by dressing the worm surface with only one path,and a closed-loop manufacturing process is applied to ensure the machining accuracy.According to an advanced geometric analysis,the worm surface is practically approximated as a swept surface generated by a planar curve.Meanwhile,this curve is applied as the profile of a dressing wheel,which is used to dress the worm surface.The practical machining is carried out in a CNC machine tool,which was originally used to grind helical gears.Finally,a closed-loop manufacturing process including machining,measurement,and modification is proposed to compensate the machining errors.The proposed method is validated with simulations and practical experiments.

Heat treatment process optimization for face gears based on deformation and residual stress control

In this paper, based on the principle of heat transfer and thermal elastic-plastic theory, the heat treatment process optimization scheme for face gears is proposed according to the structural characteristics of the face gear and material properties of 12Cr2Ni4 steel. To simulate the effect of carburizing and quenching process on tooth deformation and residual stress distribution, a heat treatment analysis model of face gears is established, and the microstructure, stress and deformation of face gear teeth changing with time are analyzed. The simulation results show that face gear tooth hardness increases, tooth surface residual compressive stress increases and tooth deformation decreases after heat treatment process optimization. It is beneficial to improving the fatigue strength and performance of face gears.

Grinding-Hardening of Face Gears Under Minimum Quantity Lubrication with Disc Wheels

To shorten the process of face gears,the grinding-hardening effect experiment of face gears under minimum quantity lubrication(MQL)was carried out.Firstly,the grinding method of face gears was analyzed based on the envelope principle,and the control equation of grinding movement was constructed.Secondly,the distribution ratio equation of heat flux density was established,and the theoretical calculation formula of triangle heat source was derived.Thirdly,since a MATLAB calculation program was compiled,the temperature change law under MQL grinding was analyzed.In the end,the influence of grinding parameters on the grinding-hardening layer depth was analyzed.The results demonstrate that MQL grinding achieves the grinding-hardening effect.

Loaded multi-tooth contact analysis and calculation for contact stress of face-gear drive with spur involute pinion

The analytical method based on "Hertz theory on normal contact of elastic solids" and the numerical method based on finite element method (FEM) calculating the contact stress of face-gear drive with spur involute pinion were introduced, and their relative errors are below 10%, except edge contact, which turns out that these two methods can compute contact stress of face-gear drive correctly and effectively. An agreement of the localized bearing contact stress is gotten for these two methods, making sure that the calculation results of FEM are reliable. The loaded meshing simulations of multi-tooth FEM model were developed, and the determination of the transmission error and the maximal load distribution factor of face-gear drive under torques were given. A formula for the maximal load distribution factor was proposed. By introducing the maximal load distribution factor in multi-tooth contact zone, a method for calculating the maximal contact stress in multi-tooth contact can be given. Compared to FEM, the results of these formulae are proved to be reliable, and the relative errors are below 10%.

Parametric Analysis of the End Face Engagement Worm Gear

A novel specific type of worm drive, so-called end face engagement worm gear（EFEWD）, is originally presented to minimize or overcome the gear backlash. Different factors, including the three different types, contact curves, tooth profile, lubrication angle and the induced normal curvature are taken into account to investigate the meshing characteristics and create the profile of a novel specific type of worm drive through mathematical models and theoretical analysis. The tooth of the worm wheel is very specific with the sine-shaped tooth which is located at the alveolus of the worm and the tooth profile of a worm is generated by the meshing movement of the worm wheel with the sine-shaped tooth, but just the end face of the worm（with three different typical meshing types） is adapted to meshing, and therefore an extraordinary manufacturing methods is used to generate the profile of the end face engagement worm. The research results indicates that the bearing contacts of the generated conjugate hourglass worm gear set are in line contacts, with certain advantages of no-backlash, high precision and high operating efficiency over other gears and gear systems besides the end face engagement worm gear drive may improve bearing contact, reduce the level of transmission errors and lessen the sensitivity to errors of alignment. Also, the end face engagement worm can be easily made with superior meshing and lubrication performance compared with the conventional techniques. In particular, the meshing and lubrication performance of the end face engagement worm gear by using the end face to meshing can be increased over 10% and 7%, respectively. This investigate is expect to provide a new insight on the design of the future no-backlash worm drive for industry.

A precision generating hobbing method for face gear with assembly spherical hob

In order to improve the processing precision and shorten the hob manufacturing cycle of the face gear,a precision generating hobbing method for face gear with the assembly spherical hob is proposed.Firstly,the evolution of the cylindrical gear to spherical hob basic worm is analyzed,then the spherical hob basic worm is designed,thus the basic worm and spiral angle equation of spherical hob are obtained.Secondly,based on the design method of the existing hob,the development method of the assembly spherical hob is analyzed,the cutter tooth and the cutter substrate of the assembly hob are designed,and the whole assembly is finished.Thirdly,based on the need of face gear hobbing,a numerical control machine for gear hobbing is developed,and the equation of the face gear is obtained.Fourth,for reducing the face gear processing errors induced by equivalent installation errors,the error analysis model is established and the impacts of each error on the gear tooth surface are analyzed.Finally,the assembly spherical hob is manufactured and the gear hobbing test is completed.According to the measurement results,the processing parameters of face gear hobbing are modified,and the deviation of tooth surface is significantly reduced.

Influence of Setting Error of Tool on Tooth Profile and Contact Point of Face Gear Drive

In order to analyze the influence of setting error of tool on both tooth profile and contact characteristic of orthogonal face gear drive,the coordinate systems with and without setting error are established.Moreover,the equations of tooth profile and contact points of face gear drive are derived by envelope principle.According to the equations,the change of tooth profile and the contact points position on face gear are analyzed.The tooth surface and contact points are obtained by numerical simulation.Results show that the tooth profile and contact characteristic of face gear drive are not sensitive to the setting error of tool.

New method for calculating face gear tooth surface involving worm wheel installation errors

The machining principle and realization method for the continuous generative grinding face gear by a worm wheel are introduced. Based on a five-axis linked CNC grinding machine, a new method is presented to deprive the equation of face gear error tooth surface by assuming the tool surface as the error surface, where actual tool installation position error is introduced into the equation of virtual shaper cutter. Surface equations and 3-D models for the face gear and the worm wheel involving four kinds of tool installation errors are established. When compared, the face gear tooth surface machined in VERICUT software for simulation based on this new method and the one obtained based on real process(grinding face gear by using a theoretical worm wheel with actual position errors) are found to be coincident, which proves the validity and feasibility of this new method. By using mesh planning for the rotating projection plane of the face gear work tooth surface, the deviation values of the tooth surface and the difference surface are acquired, and the influence of four kinds of errors on the face gear tooth surface is analyzed. Accordingly, this work provides a theoretical reference for assembly craft of worm wheel, improvement of face gear machining accuracy and modification of error tooth surface.

Influence Predictions of Contact Effects on Mesh Stiffness of Face Gear Drives with Spur Gear

Mesh stiffness is one of important base parameters of face gear dynamic studies.However,a calculation solution of mesh stiffness of face gear drives is not to be constructed due to complex geometric flakes of face gear teeth.Thus,a calculation solution of mesh stiffness of face gear drives with a spur gear,which is based on the proposed equivalent face gear teeth and Ishikawa model,is constructed,and the influence of contact effects on mesh stiffness of face gear drives is investigated.The results indicate the mesh stiffness of face gear drives is sensitive to contact effects under heavy loaded operating conditions,specially.These contributions will benefit to improve dynamic studies of face gear drives.

Complex geometric modeling and tooth contact analysis of a helical face gear pair with arc-tooth

A complex geometric modeling method of a helical face gear pair with arc-tooth generated by an arc-profile cutting(APC)disc is proposed,and its tooth contact characteristics are analyzed.Firstly,the spatial coordinate system of an APC face gear pair is established based on meshing theory.Combining the coordinate transformation matrix and the tooth profile of the cutter,the equations of the curve envelope of the APC face gear pair are obtained.Then the surface equations are solved to extract the point clouds data by programming in MATLAB,which contains the work surface and the fillet surface of the APC face gear pair.And the complex geometric model of the APC face gear pair is built by fitting its point clouds.At last,through the analysis of the tooth surface contact,the sensitivity of the APC face gear to the different types of mounting errors is obtained.The results show that the APC face gear pair is the most sensitive to mounting errors in the tooth thickness direction,and it should be strictly controlled in the actual application.

Effects of Temperature and Centrifugal Force on Fretting Wear of Contact Interface of Face Gear

Taking the typical face gear connection structure of the combined rotor as the research object,this paper studies the distribution rules of the contact state,contact stress and slip distance of the contact tooth surface of face gear under different centrifugal force and temperature conditions by using the finite element method,in order to improve the reliability of face gear connection structure.And the influence of centrifugal force and temperature on the maximum wear depth of the tooth surface is studied based on the fretting wear model proposed by McColl.Results show that:(1)The external diameter has an opening phenomenon on the contact surface of the face gear under the centrifugal effect,which reduces the load-bearing area;(2)The contact stress at the inner root of the face gear is the largest and the wear is the most serious;(3)The temperature field causes the contact surface to be thermally expanded,resulting in the large uneven deformation,and the tooth surface appears drum-shape;(4)The maximum contact stress and the maximum wear depth occur in the middle of the tooth root;(5)As the temperature increases,the maximum wear depth of the tooth surface increases significantly.Consequently,reducing temperature of the combined rotor plays an important role in effectively reducing the wear of the face gear and improving the connection life of face gear connection structure.